REDACTED: Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamana - The Fake Army That Fooled Hitler

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

As World War II raged on, America deployed its strangest weapon yet: a fake army. Known as the Ghost Army, this group of artists, architects, and actors used inflatable tanks and sound effects to deceive Hitler’s forces about the size and location of Allied troops on the attack. The Ghost Army's top-secret deception saved thousands of lives - but their story stayed buried for decades. Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterFollow Redacted: Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamana on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting https://wondery.com/links/redacted/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to redacted, declassified mysteries early and ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. This episode contains depictions of violence and is not suitable for everyone. Please be advised. On March 22nd, 1945, the air buzzed with frantic activity along the Rhine River outside the city of Krefeld, Germany, not far from the Dutch border. Tanks and trucks rolled into position. Hammers pounded. Low voices relayed orders over the radio. U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Clifford Simonson studied the chaos.

As operations officer of this unit, it was his job to make sure everything ran flawlessly. It had been nine grueling months since the D-Day invasion, and the Allies now faced their final hurdle. Crossing the Rhine River and seizing Nazi Germany's industrial heartland, crossing the Rhine River and seizing Nazi Germany's industrial heartland. Allied generals anticipated that what remained of the German army would mount a fierce defense in a last stand to keep control of their homeland. As Simonson shouted for his men to move one of the tanks into a new position, he heard the distant drone of an aircraft.

Instantly he snapped his head up. A German reconnaissance plane was now circling overhead, dipping low for a better look. Simonson then ordered his men to stop moving. His heart raced as he watched the plane. He hoped the Germans would see exactly what he wanted them to. A massive allied force preparing to attack. Finally, after the plane vanished into the sky, Simmonson barked for his men to get back to work. Then, they lifted the tank as if it were no heavier than a mattress. Simmonson smiled.

It was a sight that never got old, because this tank wasn't made with 30 tons of steel. Instead, it was roughly 75 pounds of inflatable rubber and couldn't fire a single shell. It was just a decoy. And it wasn't the only illusion. Almost the entire scene around Simonson was an elaborate fake. The sounds of trucks and tanks rolling by, the hammering. All of it was coming from huge speakers mounted on a truck. Even the radio signals were designed to be deceptive, making it seem like 30,000 American troops were gathered here. In reality, they were barely over a thousand. This was all part of a mission to trick the German army into expecting an attack here, while the real divisions would strike ten miles to the north.

Creating this deception was the job of Simonson and his men, the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, better known as the Ghost Army. These masters of illusion had spent a year fooling Nazis across Western Europe, but this operation dwarfed all others. It would take every trick up their sleeves to pull it off, and even then, no one was sure if it would actually work. When Gareth was 14, he was in a relationship with an attractive young teacher at his school and he thought he was the luckiest boy in the world. But when she walked out of his life everything started to unravel. 35 years later everyone's acting like it never happened and Gareth wants to understand why.

How about the truth? How about we do that first and then we work out where we're going to go from there? How about the truth? This new four-part series is about who gets to be a perpetrator and a victim. To listen, just search for Lucky Boy wherever you get your podcasts. When Luigi Mangione was arrested for allegedly shooting the CEO of United Healthcare, he didn't just spark outrage. He ignited a cultural firestorm. Is the system working? Or is it time for a reckoning? I'm Jesse Weber, listen to Law and Crime's Luigi exclusively on Wondery+.

From Ballant Studios and Wondery, I'm Luke Lamanna. And this is Redacted, Declassified Mysteries, where each week we shine a light on the shadowy corners of espionage, covert operations, and misinformation to reveal the dark secrets our governments try to hide. This week's episode is called The Ghost Army. When it comes to military technology, I've studied everything from sonic weapons to the Army's early experiments with night vision.

But this story stopped me in my tracks, and it takes us back to 1945. Now, in our episode, The D-Day Con, we covered how MI5's double-cross team in Operation Fortitude tricked the Nazis into thinking the D-Day invasion would take place in locations

other than Normandy. If you haven't listened to it, we highly recommend you do. But in today's episode, we cover an operation even more ambitious. As World War II hung in the balance, the U.S. military unveiled an extraordinary military unit unlike any other. Its soldiers were artists, architects, and actors who fought the enemy not with weapons, but with deception.

The battalion was nicknamed the Ghost Army because nearly everything in their arsenal was fake, from tanks and trucks to artillery pieces. Their mission was to wage war through illusion and theatrical trickery. Operating near the front lines with almost no protection, these men convinced the Germans they were facing thousands of troops that didn't actually exist. The Ghost Army risked capture and death to maintain their elaborate deceptions.

After the war, analysts estimated that their maneuvers saved the lives of up to 30,000 American soldiers. One military historian noted that rarely had there been a small group of men who had such great influence on the outcome of a major military campaign. But the members of the Ghost Army were all sworn to secrecy, and despite their striking success, their story remained classified for half a century. In December 1943, U.S. Army Captain Ralph Ingersoll raced into the office of Lieutenant General Jake Devers in London, England. Before Devers could say anything, Ingersoll launched into a pitch he had been preparing

about a new plan for military deception. He talked a mile a minute, waving his hands as he spoke. His immediate supervisor, Colonel Billy Harris, trailed behind him and implored Ingersoll to slow down and give the general a chance to greet them. But Ingersoll ignored him. His idea could affect the course of the war. At least, that's what he thought. Ingersoll had little patience for army decorum. The 43-year-old captain had worked as a journalist before the war broke out. He'd served as an editor of The New Yorker and as publisher of Fortune before launching

his own magazine called PM. He was used to dealing with high-profile subjects, including interviewing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. His ego could drive his colleagues like Harris crazy. Ingersoll kept talking at Lieutenant General Devers, explaining how he had already helped British troops in North Africa to use the art of deception with great effect. He failed to notice that General Devers' scowl was growing deeper and deeper.

Finally, Devers slammed his hand down on the table and shouted for Ingersoll to shut up. Colonel Harris glared at Ingersoll. He had a clear expression of, I told you so, in his eyes. Ingersoll apologized, then explained that for the past several months his job had been to work with British officers to come up with ways to fool the Germans about Allied plans. But his work in this area had gotten Ingersoll thinking. The Allies could also use deception in a much bigger way, bigger than any army had ever used it before. They could have an entire tactical deception force that was dedicated to creating battlefield illusions.

The General narrowed his eyes and asked for an example of how the Allied forces would use a unit like this. Colonel Harris took a step forward. As a buttoned up West Point graduate, he understood what the general was asking. So Harris spun out scenarios. The deception unit could create the illusion of armies

where none existed. They could fake attacks in one location while striking from another. They could mask weak spots in their lines. The possibilities were limited only by their imaginations. Devers cocked an eyebrow. He could see how this could be a good strategy, but he wanted to know exactly how it would work. Ingersoll laid out his vision.

A unit composed entirely of artists, designers, and actors would create fake tanks, trucks, and planes. The unit would also broadcast battlefield sounds and transmit false radio signals. Working together, they would keep the Germans guessing about the location of American troops. General Devers leaned back and gave them a curt nod. He said they would get their division of con artists, but it had better work. The stakes were enormous. Not just their reputations, but thousands of soldiers' lives would depend on their

ability to fool one of the world's most sophisticated armies. As Ingersoll left the general's office, he smiled to himself. He'd gotten his way, but he also knew his real challenge still lay ahead, building an army of artists instead of soldiers. And with the Allied invasion of Europe looming, he had just months to make it work. It was a biting cold morning at Camp Forest, Tennessee in late January 1944. 24-year-old Sergeant Victor Dowd could barely feel his freezing hands as he and another soldier struggled to carry a contraption made of wood and burlap. It was supposed to resemble a tank, but it didn't

look very convincing. Daud had only recently arrived at the base and could hardly believe he'd ended up here. Just two years ago he'd graduated from the Pratt Institute of Art and landed a job as a comic strip artist. One of his old art professors recruited him and several classmates to join the 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion. Despite its name, they spent almost no time camouflaging anything. Instead, they specialized in creating fake military installations. Using their artistic skills, they crafted dummy tanks, trucks, and artillery pieces to fool enemy observers. The 603rd was just one of four specialized units in Ingersoll's larger Deception Force,

the Ghost Army. There was also a signal company handling fake radio traffic, a sonic unit that created battlefield sound effects, and a combat engineering unit that protected the operation and helped stage the Deceptions. Together they shared one mission, convinced the enemy they were seeing American forces that weren't really there. Just after Daud's transfer to Camp Forest, his new commanders, Colonel Harry Reeder and Lieutenant Colonel Clifford Simonson, revealed they were about to test their deception skills under combat conditions. They were heading to the front lines in just three months.

That's why Daud and his fellow soldiers spent hours perfecting tank placement, making sure everything looked convincing from above. Daud reached a clearing and set down his end of the wooden burlap tank. Overhead, a plane circled, checking if their arrangement would fool German reconnaissance. The pilot's verdict crackled over the radio. The tanks were too close together. As they spread the tanks apart, Daud slipped on the ice, his foot tearing through some of the burlap.

Luckily, these wood mockups were just for practice. Their rubber tanks hadn't arrived yet. Nearby, the combat engineers drove bulldozers, creating tracks on the ground to mimic real tanks. Daud could also hear the beeps and taps of radio operators in an adjacent building practicing fake messages in Morse code. Daud shook his head, wondering if they were up to the task ahead of them. The stakes were life and death, and they'd be operating a fake army with minimal protection, their equipment mostly made of rubber.

It was hard to believe that any of this was going to work, or if they could even keep themselves alive in the process. A month later, in February 1944, Lieutenant Colonel Clifford Simonson followed a soldier through the woods near Pine Camp Training Base in upstate New York. It was dusk out, and the trees cast long shadows. Icy snow crunched under his feet. Simonson had just arrived at Pine Camp. While the Camouflage, Radio, and Combat engineering units were training at Forest Camp, Tennessee, the fourth and final unit was hard at work in New York.

The Sonic Division had one of the most technically complex jobs in the operation. They had to realistically recreate the sound of a 30,000-man army. Simmonson was visiting to see how they were progressing. Ahead of him, the soldier who was leading him stopped. He told Simonson they'd arrived at the right spot and asked him to close his eyes. Simonson did as he was told. At first, all he could hear was the creak of branches in the wind. But then, far in the distance, he heard the sound of several trucks. They rolled closer and closer until they sounded like they were stopping inches in front of him. Simonson heard doors slam and soldiers jump out of their vehicles. Then he heard the flap of

heavy canvas as tents were set up, mallets hammered in stakes. Commanding officers barked orders while infantrymen grumbled under their breath. But when Simonson finally opened his eyes, he was not in the middle of a military camp. There weren't soldiers swarming around him. The only person there was the single soldier who had guided him. In the distance, Simonson could barely make out a truck with a massive speaker mounted on the back. Everything he had just heard had come from that one speaker, and if the Germans heard

that in the distance, they'd have to believe there was an allied camp nearby. The soldier explained how the sonic unit had been recording multiple types of tanks, trucks and jeeps. They had captured them driving at different speeds, going uphill, downhill, forward, and backwards. They recorded troops building bridges, setting up camps, and more. Simonson grinned. When he'd first been assigned to command the Ghost Army instead of an infantry unit, he'd been disappointed. He didn't know how he could lead an army that didn't exist. There were no manuals for deception, no guides to follow.

But watching these men work, his doubt had turned into belief. Soon his ghost army would face its ultimate test, executing Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of Midtown Manhattan. This assailant starts firing at him. And the suspect, He has been identified as Luigi Nicholas Mangione, became one of the most divisive figures in modern criminal history was meant to sow terror is walking the people to a true issue listen to

law and crimes Luigi exclusively on one degree plus enjoying one degree plus the one degree app Spotify or Apple podcasts in 1976 Georgia native Navy veteran and peanut farmer named Jimmy Carter won his bid for the presidency what Carter didn't know then was that the next four years would be the most difficult he could ever imagine. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery's podcast American History Tellers. We take you to the events, times, and people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles, and our dreams. In our latest series, we explore Jimmy Carter's time in the White House, from his unexpected presidential victory as an outsider vowing to clean up Washington to his remarkable

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Six months later, in mid-August 1944, Sergeant Victor Daud was standing in the mud outside the German-occupied city of Brest, France. Rain poured down on him as he peered through a pair of binoculars at a church tower inside the heavily fortified city. He could make out Nazi scouts, looking right back at him. Two months earlier, the Allied forces launched the massive D-Day invasion, the largest amphibious attack in world history. Allied troops had stormed the beaches at Normandy, beating back German forces and starting their march to reclaim Europe. Now it was time for the Ghost Army to pull off their first large-scale deception. Their mission was twofold.

First, make it seem like the Americans had more troops closing in on Brest than they really did. Second, draw German resources to them and away from the real American troops. They'd be setting up a fake camp less than 500 yards from German lines. One mistake could expose them for what they were, a lightly armed unit pretending to have the massive firepower of a full division. If the Germans saw through the deception, they could easily mow them down. Dowd and the rest of the men shivered and tried to keep warm as they waited for nightfall.

Finally, when it was dark, Lieutenant Colonel Simonson gave the order. Trucks with speakers mounted on the back rolled into position. The men on board switched on the sound system. Suddenly, the quiet night was filled with the sounds of tanks rumbling, artillery shells clanking, men hammering and cursing. Meanwhile, down the road, the radio operators were broadcasting fake signals to indicate a large convoy of vehicles was arriving.

Dowd and the rest of the camouflaged unit started inflating the rubber vehicles like oversized balloons. The painted rubber was then wrapped around wooden frames to create the shape of a tank, truck or jeep. Up close, they were clearly fake jeep. Up close they were clearly fake, but from a distance they were convincing. At least that's what the Ghost Army hoped. The downpour made the rubber slick and difficult to move, but they finally got the more than 50 dummy tanks into position. Soon American

artillery opened fire to the north. The Ghost Army played their part, setting off fireworks near their dummy guns to convince the German troops they were also unleashing heavy fire. Daud kept a close eye on the dummy tank's gun barrels. The rubber had a habit of sagging after a few hours. The barrels drooped in the middle. It would be a dead giveaway if German observers spotted this. His job was to catch and reinflate them before that happened. Suddenly, a spray of bullets came from the church tower.

Dow dove for cover. He was terrified, but elated. Their deception was working. They were successfully drawing the German attention to themselves, just as they had intended. Now, they just needed to stay alive. For three nights, the Ghost Army withstood enemy fire with barely enough weapons to defend themselves. Yet they kept broadcasting the sounds of an entire division, moving the rubber tanks

under the cover of darkness, and maintaining radio traffic as if thousands of troops were present. cover of darkness and maintaining radio traffic as if thousands of troops were present. On August 24, they were ordered to move 500 yards to a new area. The next morning, Daud was in their new camp, hanging laundry to dry. He had just finished hanging the last sock when he heard a rumble in the distance. Their deception had worked. The Germans had followed the fake army and positioned their anti-tank weapons nearby, away from the real American forces gathering to the north. But then, Daud turned to see five American light tanks rolling by.

He was confused. There wasn't supposed to be another American company in this area. The whole point of their deception was that American troops would be attacking from a completely different position, not here. The tanks kept moving forward. Dowd's stomach sank. They were headed right to where the Ghost Army had just vacated, straight toward where the Germans had amassed their weapons. Dowd heard artillery, machine guns, and mortar rounds explode ahead. Men screamed as they were hit.

At that moment, he had a horrifying realization. The Germans weren't the only ones fooled by their deception. The men in the five American tanks believed the Ghost Army's rubber tanks were real, and they had moved forward expecting armor support. Now they were out in the open, facing German fire with no protection. The enemy was tearing them apart. And there was nothing Daud or any of the other soldiers in their

unit could do. He felt sick. Their deceptions were supposed to save American lives, not end them. A few days later, Sergeant Daud set up a tent outside a small village in Western France. The German artillery attack still haunted him and the other artists turned soldiers. For the first time, some of them feared that they were doing more harm than good. Dowd walked toward the center of camp where Lieutenant Colonel Simonson had called for the men to gather. The colonel said he knew what happened at Brest was weighing on them. But they had learned a critical lesson. Going forward, there would be clear communication and coordination

with other American troops. And the top brass still believed in their mission, which meant the men of the Ghost Army still had a job to do. Dowd clenched his jaw, keeping his doubts to himself. He knew he had no choice but to continue. He was in the Army now, not art school. A month later, in late September 1944, Sergeant Dowd worked on a sketch by a campfire deep in the woods outside a small town in Luxembourg.

The Ghost Army was now carrying out their riskiest mission yet. They had to convince the Germans that a massive force, the entire 6th Armored Division, was holding a 70-mile gap in the American line. In reality, that stretch was completely empty. Their job was to maintain the illusion until real troops arrived to fill the position. But things were not going according to plan. The Ghost Army was only supposed to maintain their mirage for two nights, but the real division that was supposed to relieve them kept getting delayed.

Daud and his company were on their seventh straight night of pretending to be the 6th Armored Division. The longer the deception went on, the greater the odds that the Germans would catch on. Daud's eyes scanned the darkness on constant alert. All around him the sonic unit was projecting the sounds of camp. Tanks were rumbling, sergeants yelling for men to put out their cigarettes. In the distance, Dd saw an enemy tank rolling through the woods. His eyes went wide and his heart pounded. The Nazis had found them. If the Germans discovered how lightly armed they were, they'd slaughter the entire unit.

But then he blinked, and the tank disappeared. There was nothing but empty woods ahead of him. He realized there was never a tank there. He was just so exhausted that the sounds meant to deceive the Germans had tricked him as well. Dowd tried to go back to his sketching, but tonight his hands were still shaking from fear. Suddenly, he heard a rustling behind him and whirled around. It was one of the radio operators waving a cable. The real army had

finally arrived. The ghost army was being relieved. Daud broke out in a grin. They had done it. For seven nights, they'd held the German army with nothing but rubber tanks, sound effects, and a handful of real weapons. Finally, Daud felt like all of this subterfuge was really making a difference, but he wondered how much longer they could keep fooling the enemy. On December 21, 1944, Major Ralph Ingersoll sat at Army headquarters in Verdun, France, with a handful of other Army officers. Next to him was the legendary General Omar Bradley. Behind them both, the equally famous General George Patton paced up and down the room. Ingersoll studied them both carefully.

They were two of the most important American commanders in World War II, and Ingersoll barely finagled his way into this meeting. The atmosphere was grim. The Battle of the Bulge was raging near Luxembourg City, and it was on pace to be the bloodiest battle for American forces on the Western Front. And the men knew things could still get worse. One entire division, the 101st Airborne, was trapped in the Belgian city of Bastogne. They were surrounded by German soldiers, running low on ammunition and food.

Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower had ordered Patton to advance two divisions to break through and free the 101st. But Patton was concerned that his troops would have to cross a lot of open ground, making them easy pickings for the Nazis. As the officers discussed the situation, Bradley turned to Ingersoll. He asked the Major if his ghost army could do anything to help. It would need to be mounted quickly, because

the 8,000 paratroopers of the 101st didn't have much time. Patton stopped pacing and turned to look at Ingersoll, waiting for his answer. Ingersoll blurted out that yes, his men could do… something. The end of his sentence trailed off. The truth was, he wasn't sure exactly what they could do, but he needed to come up with something. While Bradley gave him a withering look, Ingersoll's mind began to spin. Then he had an idea. The Germans relied on intercepted allied radio signals more than anything else to figure out what the enemy was up to. So what if they did something simple? A radio-only deception. No inflatable tanks. No sound effects.

His radio operators could imitate the real operators from Patton's divisions. They practiced tapping out Morse code in each operator's specific style and made sure to use all the same slang to make it sound legitimate. Ingersoll's operators could say the men were retreating and give the Germans the impression that Patton's troops wouldn't be mounting an attack. Bradley shook his head and said he was worried the idea was too simple. The Germans would know it was a lie. Ingersoll nodded. It was straightforward. But it wasn't his entire idea. The real division radio operators would communicate the opposite and say they were advancing. It would leave the Germans confused and not knowing which messages were real.

General Bradley looked at Patton. Patton rubbed his forehead and said, it could work, but Ingersoll's radio operators would have to imitate the real operators exactly. There was no room for error. Ingersoll told Patton that his boys were natural actors and that they could mimic the real operators perfectly. The next day, 29 Ghost Army radio sets went on the air. They started tapping out signals that two of Patton's divisions were retreating and abandoning the attack. Not long afterward, the divisions charged ahead, catching the Germans by surprise and breaking through the line they had surrounding the paratroopers.

On December 26th, Ingersoll received a cable. The 101st Airborne was going to be rescued. Ingersoll knew in his heart that the deception his radio operators had pulled off worked. Some people get a wild haircut or book a spontaneous trip when life throws them a curveball. But Molly? Well, she dove headfirst into a world of no strings attached sex, secret rendezvous, forbidden affairs and unforgettable adventures. And together we tell every juicy detail in Dying for Sex, Wondry's award-winning podcast

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Three months later, on March 12th, 1945, Victor Daud rolled up an inflatable tank in a field near Zarlauton, Germany. He and the other members of the Ghost Army were wrapping up their latest assignment and getting ready to move out. It had been a quick mission. The Ghost Army had spent 33 hours pretending to be an infantry division preparing to attack from Zarlautin. The real attack then came from further north, once again catching the Germans off guard.

Now they were done and everything was just about packed up. Daud shook his head. Just a few months ago, it would have taken the Ghost Army twice as much time to break down their gear and staging. Now they had everything down to a science. A commanding officer barked for the men to get moving. They were rolling out. Dowd climbed inside a truck and closed the door. He barely registered that a German shell had exploded directly in front of them. Then there was another explosion. Someone yelled that the truck behind them had been hit. Daud heard men screaming in pain. He looked out and saw men stumbling around, blood streaming down their faces.

Others were missing limbs. One man's entire body looked like it was spiked with shrapnel. A commanding officer yelled for Daud's truck to move. Without enough weapons to fight back, there wasn't much they could do. Soon Daud's truck was rumbling away to safety, but Daud's whole body shook and he could barely breathe. It was just pure luck that his truck wasn't hit. He'd been on the front lines for almost a year, but this was the closest he'd ever been to an attack. He may have entered the war as an artist, but now he felt like a soldier.

Later, he learned that two men had died and 15 more were wounded. Daud knew that overall those were light losses. Other units throughout the war had lost far more troops, but he still reeled from the news. And their most risky operation was still ahead. Two weeks later, Sergeant Daud was inflating a dummy observation plane on the bank of the Rhine River near Krefeld, Germany. After months of pushing the Nazis back across Western Europe, Allied forces now faced their last major hurdle – crossing the Rhine into the German mainland.

The Ghost Army's mission was critical. Their orders were to convince the Germans that the major assault would come from their location. In reality, the attack would strike from miles away. Daud was exhausted from inflating and positioning hundreds of decoys over the past few days. Now he had to create a whole new deception, a fake airfield. He finished inflating the rubber plane and stepped back to take a look. A plane overhead distracted him for a moment. It was getting closer and closer. Too close.

Dowd felt his muscles tense as he prepared to take cover. But when he looked up, he saw that it was an American observation plane. As the pilot attempted to land, Dowd and the others ran over and shouted and waved for him not to. They could see the pilot looked annoyed, but luckily he flew off. As the plane ascended, Dowd and the others high-fived. The pilot's error, believing that this was a real airfield, seemed like proof that their deception was going to work. Dowd felt a flutter of excitement. The Americans were going to surprise the Germans one more time

and hopefully help end the war in Europe. Just a few weeks later, on March 24th, 1945, Allied troops began crossing the Rhine, 10 miles north of Crefeld. American soldiers were prepared to face fierce resistance from German troops, but what they found instead was a confused and disorganized enemy. It was clear to the advancing soldiers that the Germans had expected the attack to come from somewhere else. This was in large part thanks to the Ghost Army and their elaborate deception 10 miles to the south.

Later, Lieutenant General William Simpson wrote a letter of commendation for the division, heralding their careful planning and attention to detail as playing a key role in the operation to cross the Rhine. It was the last deception the Ghost Army pulled off. Less than two months later, on May 8, 1945, the Allies declared victory in Europe. After the war, the men from the Ghost Army returned home. While Clifford Simonson continued his career in the military, commanding an infantry division during the Korean War, many members of the Ghost Army went on to have long and successful careers in the arts.

Victor Dowd illustrated 20 books, countless advertisements, and spent 15 years working as a fashion illustrator. Ralph Ingersoll authored multiple books and owned a chain of newspapers. Other members of the Ghost Army had notable careers as well, including fashion designer Bill Blass, who is beloved by Jackie Kennedy and Gloria Vanderbilt, photographer Art Kane, who captured images of Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, among others, and celebrated abstract artist Ellsworth Kelly. But with the exception of one article about the unit published in 1945, the work of the

Ghost Army remained top secret for 40 years. Veterans were forbidden from sharing their experience. Although the Pentagon never officially said why they kept their work secret for so long, historians say it was likely due to the rising tensions of the Cold War. The Pentagon believed similar techniques might come in handy against the Soviet Union if the Cold War ever boiled over.

In the mid-1980s, one of the former members of the Ghost Army mentioned his work during World War II to an editor at the Smithsonian Magazine over lunch. The editor was fascinated and wanted to run a story about it. By then, Cold War tensions were starting to ease, and some of the deception techniques used in World War II were likely outdated anyway. The Smithsonian magazine was allowed to publish a feature that brought the story of the Ghost Army to light, and by 1996, the records were declassified. Then, almost three decades later, on March 21, 2024, the surviving members of the unit were presented with Congressional gold medals in recognition of their service.

Armed with imagination instead of heavy weapons, the Ghost Army staged over 20 battlefield deceptions, saving thousands of American lives. They proved that sometimes the most powerful weapon in war isn't a gun or a tank. It's the art of illusion. Follow redacted Declassified Mysteries hosted by me, Luke Lamanna, on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're looking to dive into more gripping stories from Ballin Studios and Wondery, you can also listen to my other podcast, Wartime Stories, early and ad-free with Wondery Plus.

Start your free trial in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts or Spotify today. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. From Ballen Studios in Wondery, this is Redacted, Declassified Mysteries, hosted by me, Luke Lamanna. A quick note about our stories. We do a lot of research, but some details and scenes are dramatized. We used many different sources for our show, but we especially recommend The Ghost Army of World War II, how one top-secret unit deceived the enemy with inflatable tanks, sound effects, and other audacious fakery, by Rick Baer and Elizabeth Sales. How the Ghost Army of World War II

Used Art to Deceive the Nazis by Kelly B. Gormley for the Smithsonian Magazine and the Ghost Army Legacy Project at GhostArmy.org. This episode was written by Austin Raklis. Sound designed by Andre Plews. Our producers are Christopher B. Dunn and John Reed. Our associate producers are Ines Reniquet and Molly Quinlan-Artwick. Fact-checking by Sheila Patterson. For Ballen Studios, our head of production is Zach Levitt. Script editing by Scott Allen. Our coordinating producer is Samantha Collins.

Production support by Avery Siegel. Produced by me, Luke Lamanna. Executive producers are Mr. Ballen and Nick Witters. For Wondery, our senior producers are Laura Donna Palavota, Dave Schilling and Rachel Engelman. Senior managing producer is Nick Ryan. Managing producer is Olivia Fonte. Our executive producers are Erin O'Flaherty

and Marshall Louie. For Wondery. In the early hours of December 4th, 2024, CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of Midtown Manhattan. This assailant pulls out a weapon and starts firing at him. We're talking about the CEO of the biggest private health insurance corporation in the world. And the suspect. He has been identified as Luigi Nicholas

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